If Reagan was telling the truth, Finnley needed to see his father’s name carved into stone with his own eyes.
The cemetery was quiet beneath the cypress trees.
Finnley walked between the rows, searching for Camden Dennis.
He expected grief.
He expected anger.
He did not expect to be stopped by an elderly groundskeeper.
“Who are you looking for, son?” the man asked.
“Camden Dennis,” Finnley replied. “His wife told me he’s buried here.”
The groundskeeper’s face changed.
Not with confusion.
With recognition.
“You’re Finnley… aren’t you?”
Finnley froze.
“How do you know my name?”
The old man glanced toward the cemetery entrance.
Then he lowered his voice.
“Because your father asked me to give you something if you ever came looking for him.”
He reached inside his jacket.
Finnley watched as the groundskeeper pulled out a yellowed envelope.
His name was written across the front.
Finnley recognized his father’s handwriting immediately.
The groundskeeper handed him the envelope.
Then he placed an old metal key in Finnley’s palm.
A small tag hung from it.
Four words were stamped across the metal.
STORAGE UNIT 108.
Finnley stared at the key.
For three years, everyone had told him the truth about his case had already been decided.
But his father had apparently prepared something for him before his supposed death.
Finnley looked back at the groundskeeper.
“But where is my father buried?”
The old man’s expression tightened.
“Not here.”
Finnley’s fingers closed around the key.
“Then where?”
The groundskeeper swallowed.
“And if you want to know why, don’t go back to that woman just yet.”
Finnley looked down at the envelope.
For the first time since leaving prison, his grief was being replaced by something else.
A question.
Not whether Camden Dennis had died.
But why Reagan had lied about where he was.
Finnley opened the envelope with shaking hands.
The first line was written in his father’s unmistakable handwriting.
“Son, if you’re reading this, Reagan has already started lying to you.”
Finnley read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
